Fans fill Bell Centre for Red vs. White scrimmage (Video)

A sell-out crowd of 21,273 filled the Bell Centre Saturday for a scrimmmage that helped raised money for rebuilding efforts in Lac-Mégantic.

Fans were delighted to find a welcoming committee of Canadiens’ players when they walked into the Bell Centre. People snapped pictures, shook hands and high-fived the players as they moved along the receiving line.

“The important thing is we get to say hello to our fans and thank them for being here and supporting the initiative,” said Geoff Molson, the Canadiens’ principal owner who was at the main entrance.

Canadiens defenseman Francis Bouillon received a warm ovation in the third period when he thanked fans for attending the event.

“I think Lac-Mégantic is something that touched us all this summer. And it’s nice to see people support a cause like this,” Bouillon said after the scrimmage.

The White team won 2-1, led by a pretty back-hand goal by Martin Reway and a long shot by Stefan Fournier that slipped through Peter Budaj’s pads. Tomas Plekanec scored for the Red team.

Proceeds from the scrimmage will go to the Fonds Avenir Lac-Mégantic. Tickets cost $5 each and fans received a free hot dog, bag of chips and soft drink.

Dustin Tokarski replaced Carey Price in net in the second period and Zachary Fucale, picked 36th overall by the Canadiens’ in last June’s entry draft, took over for Budaj.

It was a banner day for Fucale. He made his Bell Centre debut and the team announced they’ve signed him to a three-year, entry level deal.

Max Pacioretty knocked into Fucale twice, the first time receiving a goaltender interference penalty. Fucale took it in stride and Pacioretty’s aggressive play won praise from coach Michel Therrien.

“I thought Patch did a really good job going hard to the net,” coach Michel Therrien said after the scrimmage.

“He’s so powerful with his speed,” Therrien said.

“We want to make sure he’s concentrating on those things because he’s one of the best skaters in the NHL,” Therrien said. “And he’s tough to contain when he’s using that speed and going hard to the net.”

Forward Sebastian Collberg, who has been out with a knee injury, took part in the scrimmage. Collberg was a bit nervous at the start but said he felt pretty good with Charles Hudon and Martin Reway in the scrimmage.

“I didn’t expect that today,” Collberg said of the huge crowd.

“It was awesome to be out there.”

The Canadiens’ made their first cuts at training camp on Saturday. They announced that Tim Bozon, Connor Crisp and Jérémy Grégoire will return to their respective junior teams.

You can hear more of what Fucale had to say about his Bell Centre debut and new contract here:

(Video by Brenda Branswell)

And you can watch a video by Gazette photographer Peter McCabe of Canadiens’ players greeting fans at the Bell Centre with Danny Brière talking about the experience here:

Hockey is back. Yay! But so are the inane comments about the Habs not winning fights. Same old I guess. Do these folks actually watch any games or are the copy and pasted comments from a prefabricated list?

Didn’t see the Tinordi tilt. But McCormick is a middleweight fighter goes against pretty tough guys. Drewiski didn’t get killed, but didn’t win showed up. That’s not losing a fight. Some “fans” don’t seem to understand that.

Tinordi’s wasn’t really a tilt. McCormick jumped him after Tinordi crushed another Sabre with a big hit. Tinordi just held on and wrestled him to the ice. Tinordi played a great game and brought a physical edge and made good decisions all night.

Haha, HIO is a “No-Chill” zone, that will never change. People know it’s an exhibition game with a bunch of guys who haven’t played together much and who will never be NHL players, but when the Habs lose, perspective goes out the window and we start questioning the game plan, the system, and the right of certain players to exist!

Take away from tonights game.
1.Diaz bad playoff play doesn’t seem to be an aberration but the beginning of normal play.
2.McCarron keeps up this level of play wouldn’t hate to see a ten game regular season tryout over Moen.
3.Tinordi looks ready to be full time Dman great game tonight.

Anyone else hates this defensive approach of back-pedalling and collapsing on the goalie, giving half the defensive zone away to the opposite team with the puck? We’re not in short-handed situation for goodness sake.

Pretty sure it’s a system thing as we do it consistently. Can never understand why we don’t ask the forwards to step up at the blue line and challenge for the puck

One thing that happened tonight is that the suggestion put forth by many here that McCarron was a “wasted pick” has been put to rest. He still may or may not ever be a top-six NHL regular, but it’s easy to see that he fits in at this level, has the potential to be good, and was a very solid pick as a late first-rounder.

Mostly agree with you about Bournival. His play tonight recalled his performance in the Memorial Cup in 2012, when I thought he was the best player on his team. He could challenge for a spot. I actually like both him and Gabriel Dumont better than Ryan White

Marc Bergevin signing
We didn’t need Drew
Bouillon signing will cause contraversy
Giving DD a 4 year contract before the playoffs was a dumb move
Moen ugh
Lets hope the Briere and Murray signings work out

The ill-advised/borderline hit from behind that spawned that “fight” was textbook Drewiske to me. So yeah, part of a larger sample of mediocrity. What can I say, I just can’t bring myself to cut him any slack.

No worries, just curious as to where you are coming from. He’s a depth guy so I don’t expect too much from him. He does ok for his role but I wouldn’t be upset if he was replaced by someone who could do a better job.

Yeah, just my opinion but those have been the three guys consistently noticeable, plus Bournival with the two goals. Lots of other guys had spots but

Tinordi – Looks like a vet out there, on a roster with hard divisions between kids with no experience and anything that resembles a vet. Has played a ton of minutes in all situations. It almost looks like Therrien has set this up as a test. Wearing an A and looking like a leader.

Holland – Not a lot of flash but the most consistently involved forward both ways. Subtle but smart play. Honestly if you were auditioning for the role of responsible low risk callup this would be the sort of game you would want to play.

Reway – Of all the high skill, smallish guys has been the most involved, most aggressive and again most consistent. Made a couple of boners when he essentially counted on a teammate thinking along with him.

Bournival – Not an overwhelming game but, two goals. One of them on a sweet setup by – of all people – McCarron.

What’s the name of the service you can subscribe to so that you can stream NHL games? Considering cancelling my cable… (shoulda done this over the summer in hindsight).
I know centre ice is one, but I’ve heard people mention another here on HIO.

Gamecentre is the online version of centre ice I guess, and the only official way to stream games I think. HNIC streams their games, but that’s not much use to us. There are lots of places to pirate-stream games, but I wouldn’t trust those sites personally. Gamecentre sucks by the way. So many blackouts. I won’t get it again.

You know, I like the hybrid icing so far. No need for fans to keep bracing themselves for all those useless icing puck battles where the D is clearly ahead. But if there’s a real chance for the offence, play continues …

Makes a lot of sense. Obviously, things will get dicey when referees start misjudging those calls and you know they will.